SOCWORK 1A06 Lecture 4: medical model

SOC WORK-week 4
Medical Model
-begins in 1911
-social service commission in Toronto started social case work
-Mary Richmond wrote a book in 1917 called social diagnosis and outlined the scientific
procedure, provided the frame work
-freud in 1920
-by 1921, social service council of Canada became a division of public health and social work
shifted from morality to scientific purpose
Medical Model defined:
~The absence of disease and disability
-very focused on cause, prevention and cure
-diagnosis & medication is the way forward
-medical model is influenced heavily by western culture
-medical model was very popular because of objectivity, there was no grey areas, it had good
structure to how one handles disease, and certainty.
Is the medical model helpful? It is not for everyone but it is helpful
-medical model is not wrong though it is highly specific and thus partial. It is more applicable to
some disorders than others (ex fits more physical disorders vs things you cant see like mental
health)
-disease is a condition of the body in which its structure or function is disturbed. In contrast,
illness is an individuals perception that one is suffering from a disease
-disability in the medical model includes mental health
disability in Canada
-largely undefined
-stats Canada follows the WHO to define it (it was a self report statistic)
-if it interferes with your activities of daily living and it goes on for long period of time you have
a disability
-3.8 mill or 13.7% of adult population have disabilities